Interviews

• Interviews

  Conversations between a researcher and respondent about a certain topic with a range of questions
• Structured

  • Formal interview, face to face with standardised questions
  • Closed questions, set questions giving quantitative data used on a large scale
• Structured interview example - Wilmott and Young

  • Used structured interviews to research prevalence of extended family, short interviews but large scale
  • hard to compare and interpret without imposing bias
• Advantages of structured

  • Practical = quantitative data > closed questions > suitable for hypothesis testing and comparing results > reliable
  • Ethical = some questions have fixed structure > reduces bias as questions are pre-coded
  • Higher response rate than questionnaires > able to explain questions
• Disadvantages of structured

  • Practical = less valid > stick to set questions, can't get more detail
  • Ethical = hard to compare and interpret without imposing bias
  • More expensive = pay for interviewer
• Unstructured interviews

  • Face to face in informal setting, researcher has flexibility to the interview in different directions
  • Open ended questions, qualitative data
• Unstructured inter. example - Dobashs

  • Used unstructured interviews and police reports to gain insight on domestic violence
  • Gained strong rapport
  • Produced findings about experiences of women about events leading up to attacks and why some failed to report it
• Advantages of unstructured

  • Respondent led = express themselves and explain fully > valid
  • Ethical = develop rapport > encourage to open up > reveal hidden answers
  • Interviewer can probe > formulate and develop interviewee's thoughts
• Disadvantages of unstructured

  • Long time to conduct > small sample > less representative
  • Interviewers need to be trained > good interpersonal skills > develop a rapport for honest answers
  • Unreliable, not standardised > hard to replicate findings and compare > can't establish cause and effect relationships
• Semi-structured interviews

  • Pre-coded questions but interviewer can probe for more information providing quantitative and qualitative data
• Semi-structured example - Cecile Wright et al

  • Group interviews research why Afro-Caribbeans are 5x more likely to be excluded
  • Boys felt labelled and discriminated
  • May have lied to avoid embarrassment
• Advantages of semi-structured

  • Provide both valid and reliable data > able to compare and flexibility to find out more
  • More detail due to open-ended structure > can be asked to elaborate
• Disadvantages of semi-structured

  • Lack validity > difficult to compare answers depending how far interviewer deviated from pre-coded questions
  • Open ended structure could lead to bias > tempted to ask
• Advantages of group interviews

  • Participants throw around ideas > stimulating each other's thinking > rich and reflective data
  • Feel more comfortable to open up
  • Able to observe body language
• Disadvantages of group interviews

  • Interviewer effect = respondents may give answers they think interviewer wants or opposite > peer pressure to conform to group norms > lying
  • One/two individuals dominate discussion > inhabits others from contributing
  • Complex to analyse
• Example of group interview - Willis

  • Studied working class boys who didn't care about school